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Source: Obama Not Making New Cliff Offer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A person familiar with the details says President Barack Obama is not making a new "fiscal cliff" offer at his high-stakes meeting with congressional leaders at the White House.

Obama instead is spelling out again a plan he says can pass the House and Senate, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak publicly about the private meeting.

Obama wants a bill to halt looming tax increases on all families making $250,000 a year or less and would extend unemployment insurance to many people about to lose it. His proposal would also cover other issues as the Jan. 1 deadline nears.

If he does not get a counter-proposal that can pass both chambers, Obama will press for a straight up-or-down vote on his idea, the source said.

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Typical AP article. It says what Obama wants--higher taxes on people making $250,000 a year (which won't affect Warren Buffet, who doesn't have earnings because he doesn't sell or get dividends) and more money for people not working. Fine. But it never says in the article what he will give up. Where is the spending decrease? What will be cut? It's not a deal when the president refuses to compromise and wants the other side to make all the concessions. How about taxing those who make more than $250,000, extending unemployment benefits, with an equal amount of immediate and specific cuts in spending?

isn't the fiscal cliff what the democrats want? a reversion to the clinton era tax rates. they so much as said times were better then because of higher tax rates. i remember shillary clinton making a speech where she cited the high tax rate in brazil as being a factor in their growth. apples, oranges anyone, lol.

Right now the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) and the

Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (JGTRRA) were extended to 2012 by the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 and are the law of the land and these tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2012.

Effectively the law of the land is that a $50,000 median income household is going to see $35 / week go to taxes. Because they no longer have this money to spend they can simply cut back on the cable or the toys or whatever they waste it on.

Because the federal Gov't is also going to be cutting back because of the Budget Control act of 2011 it will not be spending the tax increase. This reduction in public and private spending will cause a reduction in demand until prices come down to where the new, lower income levels can afford to be buyers again.

And as a bonus, the US military will be smaller.

All good.

Since a combination of tax increases and spending decreases will enrich the financial wizards who advise us and to whom we owe the debt we pay back we will have our self respect for paying back to them in interest and principle what we used to collect from them in taxes.